Palina Piakarskaya
Palina Piakarskaya (b.1998) is an artist who works in Åkarp, where she lives with her partner and occasionally co-parents the family dog. She has a background in traditional painting, graduating in Swedish Academy of Realist Art in 2021. Currently Palina works as an art teacher.
Excerpt from Palinas latest exhibition, DREAMSCAPE 2023:
“ When I think about painting I think about translating reality. None of us sees things for what they are, not really. Our brains and our eyes put together these pictures, impressions of the world in front of us. That is what I try to do with my paintings, show what catches my eye and amplify it. I try to notice colors, light effects and reflections. For me a good painting is like a good fiction book - sometimes somehow more true than the reality.
For this exhibition for some paintings I worked with pre-loved frames of various age and shape, exploring how the shape and size restrictions affect the painting. The “Diving In” and “Diving Out” diptych was especially cool to work with - creating a composition that has no corners or straight lines to lean on. Painting the ocean in them then felt like a natural choice.
Another way I worked was integrating sculpture. While teaching I was playing around with clay, a medium I knew very little of. As a result I made three sculptures which, in turn, evolved into focal themes within “Bear Attack”, “The Glow”, and “Two cows”. The sculptures are present in the exhibition, maybe they can be a kind of invitation, a tangible piece of my process that you are welcome to touch.
The last thing I focused on is exploration of darkness. I have worked with different pigments, from earthy-cuddly-warm dark reds to cold-as-ice blues, layering and sanding to mix the perfect blacks and create the feeling of the void. I wanted to paint the absence, the flat depth that makes the true hero emerge - the light.
What I really love is the fleeting nature of light, a single match lit in the dark just to become a wisp of smoke. The birthday cake candles ignited just to be extinguished. The flicker of existence mirroring the darkness before it and the darkness that follows. Where we come from and where we end up. But in between there is light, and that's what we are here for. “
Exhibitions & public art
2023 “DREAMSCAPE”, Kliger Gallery, Lund, Sweden
2023 “Summer”, Kliger Gallery, Lund, Sweden
2023 “Birds“ Kliger Gallery, Lund, Sweden
2021 Jäger & Jansson galleri, Lund, Sweden
2021 Live painting event at Strandkompaniet, Löderup, Sweden
2021 Mural painting for ArtMadeThis, Göteborg, Sweden
2020 The Swedish Academy of Realist Art, Simrishamn, Sweden, Konstrundan 2020
2019 The Swedish Academy of Realist Art, Simrishamn, Sweden, Konstrundan 2019
2016 Maria Thornlunds galleri, Lund, Sweden
Scholarships
2020 Konsthall in Lund stipendium
2019 Lunds kommun kulturstipendium
2015 Stipendium in arts from Katedralskolan in Lund, Sweden
2016 Lions Club stipendium
Education
2021-2022 Kulturskoleklivet vid Lunds Universitet
2018-2021 The Swedish Academy of Realist Art, Traditional Realistic Drawing and Painting
2017 Intermedia Studies: The Aesthetics of Popular Culture, Lunds University